


Carbon Copy

by Enjolchilles



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Not Canon Compliant, don't question the timeline too much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-26 12:55:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17746301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enjolchilles/pseuds/Enjolchilles
Summary: The Doctor? She didn’t know any doctors except her old pediatrician. But he sure seemed to know her.Rose was smart enough to realize that leaving school to meet up with someone she has no memory of sounds like the beginning of a missing persons report.However, she was just restless enough to give in to chance.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> based off this prompt: your main character gets called out of school/work by someone they don’t know for something they are clueless about. but for some reason, the person addressing them thinks they already know everything about it.
> 
> found here: https://self-publishingschool.com/fiction-creative-writing-prompts/

Rose sat at her desk tapping her pencil against it’s wooden edge. She watched the clock hoping for the little hand to move two slots in the span of a minute so that school would be over and she could make her way home. She tolerated school and occasionally even enjoyed it, but there was something about today. A certain restlessness that surged through her body. She settled her eyes on the board as her mind wandered off without her.

 

“Rose?” the call fell on deaf ears. “Rose, Rose Tyler?” 

 

The girl next to her had to shake her shoulder. “What?” Rose replied, and the girl pointed to the lady at the front of the class. Rose hastily stood up, “yes ma’am?” 

 

“You’re needed at the front office. Come.” She led Rose out of the class and to a telephone. “Here” she said, “it’s for you.” 

 

Rose took the landline into her hand and began, “hello?” 

 

“Rose!” The other end shouted quite excitedly, and loudly. Rose had to distance herself from the phone a bit “Yes, and who is this?” 

 

“It’s the Doctor, Rose. Listen, I’ve already told them to let you off for the rest of the day. You’ll need to walk outside and join me in the Tardis, then I can explain more.” 

 

Rose tried to stop him, and tell her she had no idea what he was talking about. But the man had lungs of steel and never stopped for breathe. 

 

He continued, “you’ll need to bring your backpack and make sure no one sees you walking out. Oh, and don’t forget the book.” And with that the man hung up. Rose placed the phone back into its slot and stood for a second perplexed. 

 

The Doctor? She didn’t know any doctors except her old pediatrician. But he sure seemed to know her. Rose was smart enough to realize that leaving school to meet up with someone she has no memory of sounds like the beginning of a missing persons report.

 

However, she was just restless enough to give in to chance. She put her bag on her shoulder and looked around to make sure no one could see her in the hall. She walked to the door sporting a faux air of confidence while also rushing, avoiding to be seen. 

 

When she made it past the doors she thought of that conversation. What exactly was a tardis? While she mulled it over a voice called out for her. She turned around but no one was there. She turned back and heard it again. She took a few steps forward and it got louder. She followed the voice until she stopped at a little blue box. 

 

“Did you forget your key?” The unmistakable voice of the man on the phone. “That’s alright, I’ve unlocked it for you.” Rose didn’t really know if she should trust him but her instinct led her hand to the handle and she stepped in. 

 

Her eyes widened and her jaw slightly dropped. She was about to run out and take a look at it from the outside but the door had already closed behind her and she was afraid to open it again. 

 

“Hello!” The man popped out from behind this... thing in the middle of the room. He was running his hands across it and touching a million different buttons and pulling a million different levers. Rose felt a little dazed. She had never seen this doctor before and she wasn’t sure whether he was exactly how she imagined him or the exact opposite. 

 

The way he smiled at her was enough to catch her breathe fully and she began to stammer and fall. He caught her by the arms and led her to a chair she hadn’t seen there a second ago. “Are you alright Rose, what’s wrong?” She thought she should fess up, that she probably wasn’t the Rose he thought she was or maybe he should just find somebody else because she had never seen him before in her life. “It’s bigger on the inside,” she gulped. And he looked at her as if she had transformed into something else right in front of him. 

 

“Tell me Rose, how old are you?” She thought he would ask her the classic  _ how many fingers am I holding up  _ but this works too. “18” she responded. “Which would make this year...” he mustn’t get around much, living under his box like its a rock. 

 

“It’s 2004.” she finished for him. 

 

“Right, yep, that’s... right.” 

 

She could sense something was wrong “What? What about it?” 

 

“Nah nothing, I’m just, two years too early.” 

 

“I don’t understand, what does that mean?”

 

“I’m not sure how much I should tell you.” 

 

She looked at him with a scared face. “Aren’t you tired Rose?” The second he said it her eyes began to droop. “I suppose” she yawned the end of her phrase.

\------

 

Rose woke up in a bed. While not her own, it was a bed nonetheless. Of course, she thought, of course that all had to be a dream. The little blue box. The handsome man. Nothing more than a figment of the imagination. Now to find out where she was exactly... 

 

She scoured the room for some sort of evidence. Red bed sheets, light blue walls, and a darker blue door. Didn’t match any friends or relatives bedroom. It was strangely overly simplistic. No posters on the wall, no pictures in frames. Like a hotel room, made so people could come and go. 

 

She gathered her courage to open the door and was met with a long hallway. Weirdly mechanical looking, like she had just stepped into the hood of a car where the motor lay. 

 

She meandered through poking her head into a series of random rooms. A bathroom, a giant library, two kitchens. Until finally she was somewhere she recognised. 

 

That room, the one in the Tardis where the doctor had played around like a madman. It was real. Rose approached the centre, taking a closer look at all its nooks and crannies. There was this greenish blue bit at the top moving slowly up and down as if it was breathing. “You’re back” yelled the Doctor, she hadn’t seen him come in. “Yea, feeling better I think.” 

 

“That’s good” he flashed her a smile, which brought on her own. Something about this bloke just felt so natural to her. “So,” she said, looking down and running her hand slightly on the Tardis. “Are you ever going to tell me where exactly I am? Or who exactly you are?” 

 

“I was afraid you would bring that up again.” 

 

“Better start talking then” 

 

“Alright”

 

And so he did. He told her what exactly the Tardis was, Time and Relative Dimension in Space (too much of a mouthful, Rose thought.) How it was his ticket to any time or place you could ever even imagine. How where they were was the console room and how where she slept had been one of the million extra rooms in his never ending ship. That, as strange and unbelievable as it was, was somehow the simplest part of their conversation. 

 

The Doctor didn’t know how to start as to who he was and how he knew her. He said it would mess up their entire timeline, but that it seemed he didn’t have any other choice. So he did something strange. 

 

“I’m going to transfer some information to you.” 

 

“Is that not what we’ve been doing?” 

 

“Well yes, but it’s a different way of doing so. An info dump, like on computers. Wait, 2004. So not quite that easy, scratch that.” 

 

“What do you mean?” 

 

“I’m going to put my fingers here” he placed them on either side of her temples “and my head here” he placed his forehead onto hers “and I’m going to give you the memories that we’ve made. Now listen closely, once I’m inside your mind I can see it all. Anything you don’t want me to see, imagine a door closing just like that and I won’t see them, I won’t even look.” She looked into his eyes before closing her own and scrunching her brows “I’m not sure I understand” 

 

“Just keep your eyes closed, it won’t hurt and it’ll only last a second.” 

 

And then she felt it. She felt him inside her own head. It was like she could see him running around in there, and feel it too. When the memories entered her own head Rose felt overwhelmed. In a matter of seconds the Doctor had pulled away and wrapped his arms around her. “Shhh, I know it’s a lot”

 

“All that?” She sounded so amazed. “Have we really done all that?” 

 

“I’m afraid so” he let out a little laugh. Rose couldn’t help but smile at him, now that she had seen the whole story she felt a newfound appreciation for herself and this man in front of her. 

 

“All that!” She was giggling harder now. “I almost can’t believe it.” 

\------

 

Rose and the Doctor we’re back to their normal state. “Did you bring that backpack I asked you for?” 

 

“This?” She asked picking up the bag she had left on the chair. 

 

“That’s the one.” He grinned as he rummaged through it. 

 

“You said something about a book, but I didn’t know which one you meant.” 

 

“Well, were in luck cause you’ve got it here.” 

 

“Really?” 

 

“Yep” he took out a thin textbook, Botany. She didn’t know what he could want with that. 

 

“So what exactly are we up against?” 

 

“I’m trying to figure it out myself.” 

 

The Doctor hated not knowing, though it is what kept him on his toes. “What had happened was that the Tardis had brought Rose and I, you and I, to this underground deserted metro station. It had on older look, already covering itself with vines. But not too far into your past say... mid 90s? Except that these plants weren’t natural to the area, not even to earth. An invasive species.” He whipped out a pair of glasses and put them on quite aggressively. Now Rose knew all about how he didn’t really need them. 

 

The Doctor picked out the botany book and flipped through it, showing Rose a series of vines that grow on the sides of buildings. He looked at them puzzled. “She mentioned something about having this book, said it might help. But none of these vines are gonna be exact matches, maybe i’m just missing something.”

 

Rose raised an eyebrow, “so this is what we’re up against?” She joked, pointing to a rose, “my self portrait?”  

 

He looked quizzical, “something of the sort.” 

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Down in the tunnel all the walls were covered in vines like these but they were different, they all connected to the middle, to a large metallic circle.” 

 

“Alright. And where do I come in?” 

 

“I was there with Rose, we found it together, the Tardis took us. But when we got there and took a look around she disappeared. I could hear her voice but I couldn’t see her. I went back into the Tardis looking for her and saw a message on my screen, telling me where I needed to get her and what she needed to bring. I couldn’t find where it came from but I trusted it, I knew it would help me to find Rose. You.” He corrected himself. “It still doesn’t really make much sense to me but I have no doubt we can piece it together.” And with that he jolted up, jogging to the Tardis console. “So shall we have a look?” 

 

“You mean go back to where you went?”

 

“Correctamundo” he grinned at her. “But it’ll be approximately a minute after I left to go find you. Can’t risk running into myself.” He pressed a few more buttons, even hitting the console with a hammer at one point. “Rose Tyler,” he looked into her eyes before pulling back the final lever “we’ll figure this out.” 

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

When they arrived Rose was first at the door. Though she had all the memories of traveling, it was the first time she had done it; as this version of herself at least. If that even made sense. Despite knowing the harrowing circumstances, she couldn’t help but have the widest smile as she stepped onto the ground, different from the one she had entered the Tardis on. It took a lot of willpower to not squeal like a child. 

 

The Doctor came up behind her and shut the door. “Don’t touch the walls, I’m still not sure what they’re made of.” 

 

She looked at the short beige walls, covered in coloured vines of different green shades running up and down like a maze. The room had a warm yellowish glow to it as if there was a skylight hidden somewhere. But there was none, it was completely artificial. So realistic her skin even felt the familiar heat of sun.  Just like the doctor said they all ran like wires to the centre, where a large metallic orb sat. Rose felt the strangest temptation to place her hand on it, and feel the cold on her palm. But she shook the thought away and turned to the doctor running her arm through his. “So, what’s the plan?” 

 

He looked down at her trusting eyes, “I need to try to get a sample of the plants so I can test them in the Tardis.” 

 

“But you said you didn’t know if they were dangerous or not, how are you going to do it?” 

 

He looked at it with a face, a face that had been in her mind many times. One that said, “I would do anything to protect you”. 

 

He cleared his throat and let go, walking over to the wall and crouching down. She crouched down beside him. He pointed to some stray leaves hanging off the sides. “I was thinking if we snipped of a little bit of this it might give us a clue.” He took a pair of gloves and scissors out of his jacket pocket, which Rose hadn’t seen him put in. The never ending pockets from the never ending ship of a never ending man.  He cut off a tip, and held it in his hand. He later placed it onto a small platform near the screen in the Tardis. He scanned the cutting, hoping for a clearer answer. 

 

“That’s weird” he said. 

 

“What? What’s weird?” 

 

“It’s rubber.” He looked at it a little closer before licking it slightly “definitely rubber.”

 

Rose recoiled slightly in disgust but awkwardly laughed nonetheless, “okay, so what does that mean.”

 

“It means that those plants aren’t plants, they’re fakes.” he ran out of the Tardis and Rose followed. He touched the vine before cutting it straight in half. “It’s hollow, it’s a tube.” 

 

That all seemed fine, until the liquid slowly started to ooze out from its newly opened hiding place. Red drops dropped out one by one very slowly.  

 

“Is that what I think it is?” Rose asked shakily. 

 

“I’m afraid so. blood.” The Doctor looked around, “and I think it’s coming from there.” He moved his head in the direction of the orb in the middle of the room. 

 

“Then what’s inside?” Rose questioned. 

 

“Would you like to find out?” The Doctor held up his screwdriver. 

 

“Don’t really have another option.” She gulped. He pointed the sonic and it lit up with a familiar buzzing noise. The circle opened like double doors, and out poured strange vapours and blinding light. 

 

There inside stood Rose Tyler with the vines attached to her arms and legs. “Rose!” The Doctor ran up to her, trying to get a better look. 

 

“Can you hear me Rose?” He put his hand on her cheek and flashed a light over her eyes. She was paler than she had ever been. When her eyes wielded open she looked at him in shock. 

 

“Doctor?” Her voice sounded weak. Her face scrunched together in pain, “I never thought I’d see you again.” 

 

“Yes it’s me Rose,” his smile widened, then dropped. “What have they done to you? Can you get out of here?” He grew angrier by the minute. 

 

“I’m stuck. They’re taking my blood.” her eyelids were heavy and drooped. 

 

“I need you to stay with me Rose, I’m going to disconnect you from the tubes.” He turned around “Rose I need you to go into the Tardis, there are some bandages in a box inside the wardrobe.” 

 

Rose was shocked, looking at herself in pain, almost feeling it. “Me?” She asked. He nodded and she ran to the Tardis. 

 

When Rose returned she saw her future self huddled on the floor, the Doctor holding her close and and the room previously shined in bright white lights was now red. She put the bandages next to him and asked what happened. 

 

“When I disconnected Rose it triggered some sort of alarm, hence the lighting change.” He bandaged up a passed out Rose. “Is she alright?” It felt strange to refer to herself as if she was a whole other person. 

 

“She will be.” The Doctor looked at his Rose in his arms before kissing her forehead and laying her on the floor on top of his coat that Rose didn’t even notice he took off. “We have to figure this out while she rests.” Rose continued looking at herself, unbothered by his comment. “Is that ok?” 

 

“Yea,” she responded. “She didn’t even notice. She didn’t notice that I was there, that I’m here.” Rose put her hand over her forehead as if she felt a fever there. 

 

“Are you okay Rose?” 

 

“I’ll be fine. It’s just so much to think about.” The Doctor stretches out his hand and she took it as he walked her over to the orb “what do you think?” He asked. 

 

“What do I think?” She reiterated. 

 

“What do you think it wants from you?” 

 

“I’m not sure. Is there a way to ask it?” 

 

The Doctor thought for a second. “Not sure, we’d need to establish a connection first.” He walked around the orb running his hand across it. He felt the nub of bolts, and used his sonic screwdriver for exactly what it was meant for. When the metal popped off underneath was a screen. “Aha.” The Doctor seemed sure this was some kind of breakthrough. “If I can get this up and running it may be connected to something larger.” 

 

He played around with the buttons lighting up the screen. He spoke to it softly, “is anybody listening?” Across the blue screen text appeared, making a little pixelated beeping noise each time.  _ Yes _ , it read. “Hello I’m the Doctor, and who might I be speaking to?” No response, and the Doctor grew impatient. “Can you at least tell me what it is you want?” 

 

_ Samples _

 

“Samples? What exactly do you mean?” 

 

_ Our planet is dying. We require basic plant life from earth to repopulate. Once they are retained we leave. All in peace. _

 

The last bit surprised him, “well that’s not something I hear everyday.” He pulled on his ear, “if you meant no harm then what was the point in taking Rose? You bled her practically to death, and that’s peaceful to you is it?”

 

_ Rose is a popular earth flower. _

 

“So you thought taking a humans blood would somehow create the real thing? I’m afraid that’s not how it works.” 

 

_ The process is almost complete. _

 

“... say that again?” 

 

_ the process is almost complete. _

 

“I don’t understand.”

 

“Doctor, look at the walls.”

 

On the vines new stems had appeared with thorns and a bud. Small petals were peaking out but not yet fully grown. 

 

“That’s not possible? Right?” Asked Rose

 

“Alien technology, anything’s possible.” He winked at her. “So, once the process is complete you’ll pack up and head home then?”

 

_ affirmative. _

 

“So how do we wrap it up?” 

 

_ More blood is needed. _

 

“She’s in no position to be giving more.” 

 

_ One human pint left. _

 

“I’m not sure you understood me, you won’t lay another hand on Rose.”

 

Rose looked down at the veins in her arm “use me.”

 

“I’m sorry?” 

 

“It’s the same blood, her and I. I can finish it.” 

 

He turned his attention back to the screen. “You sent me to get another Rose because you sensed this would happen.”

 

_ That is correct _

 

He shook his head. “Rose, are you sure you’re up for this.”

 

“A pint and they leave right?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“No problem then.”

 

She walked into the orb and the door closed behind her.

 

“You’ll let her go when the transaction is complete?”

 

_ 10 minutes.  _

 

He walked back to the Tardis to check on his Rose. She sat huddled in a blanket. She was almost sheet white still but she seemed more awake. He sat down next to her and she put her head on his shoulder. 

 

“Better?” He asked.

 

“Better.” She said

 

“You didn’t notice did you? That there was someone else there?”

 

“No, who?”

 

“A version of you from the past.”

 

“How does that work? I don’t remember meeting you.” 

 

“Time can be rewritten.”

 

Rose wouldn’t try to argue, it doesn’t matter how long you travel with the Doctor, time stays just as messy for anyone.

 

“I’m going to have to do something I’m not proud of.” He wrapped his arms around Rose.

 

“What is it?” She whispered.

 

He pulled away and she held his face in her hands. “I’m going to have to wipe her memory of this.” 

 

They were silent for a second. “If that’s what you have to do.”

 

“You’ll be able to remember these events through your perspective, but you won’t remember anything she went through.” 

 

“I understand, I really do.” 

 

“She’ll pass out from the blood loss and all the energy it takes to wipe memories. Should give us enough time to drop her off at home.” 

 

“Have you known you’d have to do this the whole time?”

 

“Yes.” 

 

“And where is she now?”

 

“Saving us.”

 

—————-

 

Ten minutes had passed and the doctor ran to get her. As the orb opened she looked like her future counterpart, weaker but still strong. He helped her out and lay her on the floor, her back on his knee. 

 

“Hi.” She smiled.

 

“Hello.” He said. “How are you feeling?”

 

“Good.” 

 

“Do you remember when I gave you the memories?”

 

“Yes.” 

 

He went silent. 

 

“What is it Doctor?” 

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

He grabbed her head and held her close to him. “Stop please,” she begged, understanding and pushing at his chest to get him away. 

 

Her Doctor looked at her teary eyed, “I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry.” she continued to squirm, her fist lightly hitting his arms in resistance, “You can’t do this.” She hissed. 

 

“Rose Tyler-” his voice wavered, he pushed her hair out of her face, calming her down, her body becoming less tense. He looked at her lovingly “Don’t you worry,” he wiped a mascara filled tear from under her eye, “because our story is so far from over.” 

 

Rose let out one last wince as the Doctor kissed her forehead and then placed his own there. He took away the memories one by one. Rose, tears running down her face whispered to him one last thing, before falling limp into his arms:

 

“I don’t want to go.” 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> please leave a comment if you notice any errors or you just want to, I love reading them :)


End file.
